Mods: if this is the wrong forum, feel free to move it. It seemed most appropriate to a General Discussion. I see these kinds of "Logs" on other kinds of forums. I figured many of us here are in it for the long haul, and it would be interesting if individuals kept diaries like this to give people on the outside a better idea about the logistics of this enterprise, or those on the inside a point of comparison.

I've decided to dabble in Bitcoin mining as an experiment in the profitability of the enterprise. I am currently pool mining on bitcoinpool.com using a 5830 @ 248 MH/s, and will be upgrading to a Crossfire setup pretty soon. Now, with any experiment there needs to be data and analysis. So I've created time-line graphs beginning when I started mining on May 9th so I can track my progress. This will allow me to gauge in the future when I need to upgrade equipment and when it's no longer profitable. Currently, I am tracking progress in terms of the following:

Edit:Btw. the only interesting USD value is anyways the one of the current day - as you won't be able to get different exchange rates than the current ones...

Also you could try to put 2 of these values in one chart (for example current worth BTC + current worth USD or "BTC mined per day + USD value of these mined BTC per day")

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The BTC-USD values are more or less arbitrary (and also from a single entity - maybe there will be another exchange coming up in a few weeks/months that is far more popular?!)

Well, they're not arbitrary in the sense that if I pulled out I could get that much for them using a given exchange. Also, bitcoin-otc seems to follow mtgox's prices fairly well. These numbers aren't just pulled out of thin air or randomly generated. So they have some meaning and help put things into context.

I think also if a new market comes along and the price is very different, then mtgox's market prices will change in response to that. No market is an island.

I've also added a chart to track earnings generated from running a Bitcoin p2p node. My node maintains an average of about 50 connections.

Hm, how do you earn BTC just by running a node? I thought that's just what the client does (running as p2p node), but I didn't know you would get BTC for that?!

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It all depends what "client" you're referring to - a pool miner or the vanilla Bitcoin client. When you mine in a pool you don't earn any of the transaction fees because the way they're all setup the owners keep that as part of their compensation. When you run the vanilla client or solo mine, then chances are (if you have port forwarding in place) you're also acting as a node.

I don't have a full grasp of how transaction fees are earned, but this is from the wiki:

Quote

Because nodes have no obligation to include transactions in the blocks they generate, Bitcoin senders may voluntarily pay a transaction fee. Doing so will speed up the transaction and provide incentive for users to run nodes, especially as the difficulty of generating bitcoins increases or the reward per block amount decreases over time. Nodes collect the transaction fees associated with all transactions included in their candidate block.

I've been running a pool miner and a Bitcoin client separately. My Bitcoin client isn't generating any blocks, it's simply acting as a p2p node. Here's a description of how a node plays a role in transactions:

Quote

Transfers are facilitated directly without the use of a financial processor between nodes. This type of transaction weakens consumer protection by making chargebacks impossible. The Bitcoin client broadcasts the transaction to surrounding nodes who propagate the payment across the network. Corrupted or invalid transactions are rejected by honest clients. Transactions are mostly free, however a fee may be paid to other nodes to prioritize transaction processing.

I wasn't sure what to expect doing this, but after about a week I had "Generated" .12 BTC. So I can only surmise that I earned transaction fees that propagated through my node?